Back in Print
Off the Press
Hey now! The next issue of The Print Edition is coming at you next week. The theme is sports, but not the obvious way. We focus on pub games, sad fans, squash psychology, club cocktails, Kentucky racing and more. We’ve got great contributors—writers, thinkers, photographers, Englishmen. You’ll get more details next week.
Get ahead of the game and subscribe, order a copy or feel big feelings here. Michael and I are really happy with how this turned out—if you’re already in The Contender world I think you’re really going to enjoy this issue.
There’s a lot going on in New York and the rest of the world.
-Days and Nights in the Forest. Satyajit Ray’s 1970 wonderful, wistful comedy has been extended at Film Forum. Recommended highly—including an introduction by Wes Anderson (who had a hand in the restoration).
-The Fever. Wallace Shawn’s two-hour monologue was originally performed in the apartments of his prosperous friends. Now he’s installed in a chair in a spare setting in Barrow Street Theatre. Get ready for misdirected charm, dark humor and feeling like you’re part of the problem. Next week I’m seeing his new play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days, directed by André Gregory (who’s a spry 91 years old), and will report back.
-Cuba Dispatch. It’s hard to put a face on every tragic situation unfolding around the world. My friend Ruaridh, a Scotsman who lives in Havana—you may remember him from The Believer—wrote a truly wonderful, humane story for the Guardian about what’s going on in Cuba. Outside politics (without absolving politicians), this is a piece that captures what it’s like to living within a society while it crumbles around you.
-Historic German Financial Fraud. This 2023 New Yorker story by Ben Taub is a key inspiration for the last season of Industry. Thrilling, breathless reporting.
-A Short History of Nearly Everything. Not a secret, by any means. Bill Bryson’s wonderful, wonderful book about the evolution of the galaxy, the sun, the Earth and the rest of it, started with his youthful desire to know how much the globe weighed. This is great for the non-scientists among us. In the spirit of John McPhee but warmer—an all-time audio book.
-Light Years. If you missed the big literary news, Michael and I are going to conduct (enforce?) our first book club. Time to visit (or revisit—the book may be different than you remember) James Salter’s novel about a picturesque young family that starts to unravel. Enjoy passing references to shirt-makers, English fly fishing and Midtown clubs, then brace yourself for the emotional aftermath.
I only discovered James Salter here (thank you!) and read it and almost all Salter's work in the last year. I really wish I had read it in my youth so that I could test the novel against life and revisit it later. Still, it was searing read and a book that haunts me still.
New issue of The Print Edition looks great. Can't wait to read it. Also really like that you're recommending highlights from the world of books, theater, etc.